Time keeping and searching for new physics using metastable states of Cu, Ag and Au

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of using metastable states of Cu, Ag, and Au for optical lattice clocks, aiming for high precision and applications in detecting new physics phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach using specific atomic transitions in Cu, Ag, and Au for highly accurate optical clocks and discusses their use in fundamental physics tests.

Findings

Fractional uncertainty comparable to current best optical clocks

Calculated lifetimes and transition rates for proposed clock transitions

Potential applications in detecting variations in fundamental constants and dark matter

Abstract

We study the prospects of using the electric quadrupole transitions from the ground states of Cu, Ag and Au to the metastable state $^2{\rm D}_{5/2}$ as clock transitions in optical lattice clocks. We calculate lifetimes, transition rates, systematic shifts, and demonstrate that the fractional uncertainty of the clocks can be similar to what is achieved in the best current optical clocks. The use of these proposed clocks for the search of new physics, such as time variation of the fine structure constant, search for low-mass scalar dark matter, violation of Local Position Invariance and violation of Lorenz Invariance is discussed.